Misbah heaps praise on ‘principled’ Younus

Pakistan Test captain hails veteran batsman’s excellence

With only two days left in the last Test match between Pakistan and West Indies, retiring captain Misbahul Haq opened up about his relation with batting veteran Younus Khan on and off the field.

Misbah, the 42-year-old right-handed batsman, believes Younus is the kind of player you can place complete faith in, thus making him the one of the greatest willow-wielders produced by Pakistan.

“Through all the years that I've known him, he has remained, at heart, the same,” Misbah wrote for ESPNcricinfo. “He was very firm with the principles he based his cricket and life on. Those are unchanged: that he's always kept his affairs very organised, that he has maintained strict discipline about his career, that he has wanted to come across a certain way on the field, that he will always make newer players comfortable, that he will make greater effort with them. He is still like this. The main pillars and principles on which a man stands have always been very clear for him.”

Misbah further highlighted the reasons for the success Younus got at the international level. “His disciplines, his routines, on the field, in training, in his personal life — it is what has made him a great batsman,” he said. “That and his belief — he always believed, in every situation, whatever the circumstances. Can't make hundreds in the fourth innings? I'll do it. Can't chase that much in the fourth innings? I'll do it. Green pitch? Let me bat on it. That's where his greatness begins.”

‘Captaincy never an issue’

Misbah was asked to lead the Pakistan side after the 2010 spot-fixing scandal had dismantled the confidence of the players. He started from scratch and built a Test team which, for the first time in the history of the game, touched the top mark in the five-day rankings, and Misbah says Younus never had issues with him over the notion of captaincy.

“The captaincy was never an issue between us,” revealed Misbah. “It was not something I had ever run after. And I also knew what Younus was like. I knew it didn't matter that he wasn't captain because he would still give everything he had for the team — without any doubt. Whatever help he could give, whatever he could do for players, he would. I've always had full support from him. Whenever we have needed an innings from him, whenever we have needed him, he has come good. You have full faith in a guy like that, that he will get us out of trouble.”

Younus’ greatest innings

Younus became the first-ever Pakistan to score 10,000 runs in the longest format and is the only batsman to score Test tons in 11 different countries, however, Misbah has a few personal favourites.

“He has played so many great innings in this time,” wrote Misbah. “The 171 in Pallekele stands out. It just didn't look like the score could be chased. We were two down for nothing and he wasn't scoring. Then he just tweaked his trigger-movement a touch, just for this innings to their medium-pacers, and you saw the result. There's so many more — the double at The Oval, another in Zimbabwe, when we were in deep trouble. And these were crucial ones, without which we could've lost.”